Donald Trump says he wants the Supreme Court to intervene in his upcoming sentencing on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
“The ‘Sentencing’ for not having done anything wrong will be, conveniently for the Fascists, 4 days before the Republican National Convention,” Trump wrote Sunday night on Truth Social, complaining that Judge Juan Merchan was an “‘Acting’ Local Judge, appointed by the Democrats, who is HIGHLY CONFLICTED” to “make a decision which will determine the future of our Nation.”
“The United States Supreme Court MUST DECIDE!” Trump added in an appeal to the nation’s highest court.
Trump is expected to appeal the verdict, but it would first need to make it through the criminal appeals process in New York before it could be elevated to the Supreme Court.
On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News that he believed “the Supreme Court should step in” on the verdict, implying that he may have spoken with some of the justices about Trump’s legal issues. “I think that the justices on the court — I know many of them personally — I think they are deeply concerned about that, as we are. So I think they’ll set this straight,” Johnson said. “This will be overturned, guys, there’s no question about it, it’s just going to take some time to do it.”
The Supreme Court — which includes three conservative justices appointed by Trump — is currently weighing a challenge to one of Trump’s federal indictments that could grant him widespread immunity from prosecution.
On Thursday, Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records stemming from a 2016 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniel ahead of the election. Merchan scheduled sentencing for July 11, just a few days before Trump is expected to be officially nominated as the GOP’s 2024 presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Since his conviction, Trump has hinted at the possibility of violence from his supporters. “I’m not sure the public would stand for it,” Trump said during a Sunday Fox News interview. “I think it’d be tough for the public to take. At a certain point, there’s a breaking point.
“I’m OK with it,” Trump added on the prospect of jail time. “I saw one of my lawyers the other day on television saying, ‘Oh no, you don’t want to do that to the president.’ I said, ‘You don’t beg for anything.’”
